Bittersweet
by Cheeseburger of Doom
Summary: [AU d1] Niou is bothered by the fact that Yagyuu is so mysterious -- he follows him to find out his secrets. The trouble is, he learns that secret, and everything has to change.


A/N: this is a fic that I entered in the yaoi-con fanfiction contest. I didn't win, but at least I tried. please enjoy AU style D1.

Bittersweet

Yagyuu Hiroshi was a mystery. Niou knew that he always good grades in school, with seemingly very little effort. He was very popular with the girls, but he always brushed them off with a cold indifference that they for some reason found even more appealing.

Niou also knew that Yagyuu was good at tennis, since he just happened to be Yagyuu's doubles partner. He was also the only person that Yagyuu seemed to spend any amount of time with outside of tennis practice. They ate lunch together sometimes, and while Yagyuu was not much of a conversationalist, he was good company.

However, Niou knew nothing about Yagyuu's life outside of school. Yagyuu always refused to go to Niou's house after school or on weekends, claiming that he was always busy. He never talked about his family, he did not have any friends that Niou knew about, and Niou didn't even know what part of the city that Yagyuu lived it. Yagyuu was always very vague when Niou tried to bring it up,, and it drove him crazy.

What was Yagyuu Hiroshi hiding, and why?

It was this maddening question that drove Niou to follow Yagyuu home one day, combined with the desire to try and pull a prank on Yagyuu that would make even him react. Yagyuu tended not to be phased by anything, and Niou had made it his personal project to make Yagyuu's one facial expression at least twitch. None of the things he had tried so far had succeeded, so he thought that maybe if he followed Yagyuu for a while he would discover some way of surprising him.

Niou had developed an obsession, and he was using every excuse he could think of to rationalize it.

Niou kept a few steps behind Yagyuu as he left the school. It was not a very exciting expedition. Yagyuu seemed to be headed to do some shopping or something, and Niou had a feeling he was going to have to wait a while to find out anything useful about him, besides maybe where he liked to buy his tennis supplies.

He was surprised when Yagyuu met up with a girl, and even more surprised to see that she was at least eighteen or nineteen years old. Yagyuu, the boy who never accepted any girl's love confessions, was going on a date? That couldn't be right. Maybe she was his sister.

The smile that lit her face when Yagyuu kissed her hand was definitely not very sisterly, nor was the way she clung to him when they began to walk again. Niou wished he was close enough to hear what they were saying. He was feeling just a little pleased with himself, because now he knew what Yagyuu was hiding. He was having an affair with a college girl!

Their date progressed as any date would. They went out for dinner, during which Yagyuu acted incredibly charming. Niou wondered if this was the same person he played doubles with, after all. It certainly looked like him, but he had developed...personality. Again, Niou wished he could hear what was being said.

He sat behind the couple while they were watching a movie, and then he followed them while they went for a walk in the park. It was all very boring, and Niou was not at all thrilled at the sight of them kissing, but he was determined to keep watching until Yagyuu went home. He was not even sure why watching the couple was making him feel increasingly uneasy. It felt a little like jealousy, and he really had no reason to be jealous. He'd had his share of girlfriends, and he hadn't particularly cared for any of them. In fact, he had been put off the idea of dating altogether.

Niou was trying hard not to make a sound as he crouched behind a bush, watching the happy couple being romantic and sappy. A yawn turned into a wide-eyed expression of shock when he saw what happened next.

Yagyuu had removed his glasses at some point, presumably to make it easier to snuggle with his girlfriend. Niou had a clear view of Yagyuu's face from where he was, and he saw Yagyuu's eyes change color. They went from dark and in shadow to a brilliant, glowing gold. It was an impossible color, and Niou knew that no human should have eyes like that. He felt like he was having a nightmare, or maybe he'd landed in a bad manga. That feeling intensified when he saw Yagyuu's teeth lengthen and sharpen, and sink into the girl's neck.

He was drinking her blood.

Niou lost the ability to think. He wasn't really aware of what he was doing when he sprung out from behind the bush, and tried to pull the girl away from Yagyuu. Whatever he was, he was hurting the girl, and Niou didn't want to see it. He didn't want to believe that his doubles partner was a monster. He wanted to wake up from this dream and go to school, and make fun of the real Yagyuu, who never responded...

Niou felt unbelievably strong hands gripping his wrists. The girl dropped to the ground, unconscious and forgotten.

"What are you doing here?" Yagyuu asked. "You realize that I have to kill you now." His voice was quiet and dangerous, and Niou was suddenly filled with dread. Why had he ever followed Yagyuu? He should never have tried to find out the secret. He should have been content with the mysterious Yagyuu that he knew. He would never get to pull that prank on him now, because he was going to die. Yagyuu was going to kill him.

"You're not Yagyuu," Niou said stupidly, trying to deny it, trying to deny everything.

Yagyuu did not reply to that. Niou suddenly felt very sleepy, as he looked into those glowing golden eyes.

When they find me in the morning, my body will be drained of blood, and no one will ever know who did it, Niou thought vaguely. They'll never suspect my doubles partner, the model student...

Yagyuu went back to his lair with Niou's limp body slung over his shoulders. He could run faster than any human could, of course, because he was not human at all.

He was angry. He was angry that he had not noticed that he was being followed, and he was even more angry that it was Niou that had been following him. He had to kill Niou for what he had seen. Niou was a fool. A stupid, stupid fool.

A fool that Yagyuu did not want to kill.

In all the centuries since he had risen from his crypt, Yagyuu had never met a human that affected him like Niou Masaharu did. Niou amused him, angered him, frustrated him. Niou made him feel emotions that no vampire should be able to feel. He had grown attached to the trickster, and now he had to kill him.

It should be easy to kill a human. It was always easy to kill humans. They existed as nothing more than food for the vampires that lurked everywhere. It was possible to drink blood without killing the human, but what was the point of that? Part of the enjoyment was the finality of death, and the sweet taste of the last drop of blood a body possessed.

Yagyuu settled Niou onto his bed, and sat down on it beside him. Killing humans should be easy, but he did not want to kill Niou.

Why had Niou been so stupid? It was true that he could never have known what following Yagyuu would entail, but he should never have followed him in the first place. He was too curious, too foolish, too human.

Yagyuu had to kill him. He could not let Niou live with the knowledge of what he had seen, because he might spread that knowledge. Many people would think he was crazy, but there were bound to be some who believed him, especially if they found the bodies. At the very least, they would deem Yagyuu some kind of psychopath, and lock him away. He would starve to death in a prison cell. The only way to kill a vampire was to cut off his supply of human blood.

He had to kill Niou. He would kill Niou in a little while.

Yagyuu remembered one afternoon when he had allowed Niou to lay with his head in Yagyuu's lap while they sat under a tree. Niou's face had been very young and innocent in sleep, much as it was now, and Yagyuu had watched him for a long time. Surrounded by the peaceful afternoon, he'd felt very content.

Yagyuu had wondered if that was what paradise felt like. Immediately afterwards, he had been disgusted with himself for that thought, because it was so very unlike him. It was much too human.

He had to kill Niou, and soon. Reminiscing would not get the job done.

Niou's hair was soft, and Yagyuu found himself stroking it. He traced the line of Niou's jaw, and Niou's lips, and he realized that he would not be able to kill Niou, ever.

He fell asleep with his head resting on Niou's chest, and he had nightmares about all the people he had killed over the centuries. They all had Niou's face.

Niou awoke in an unfamiliar setting, with some kind of weight on his chest. For a moment, he could not remember how he had ended up here. When he saw just what was resting against him, it all came rushing back.

He was surprised to be alive. He had been sure that he would never wake up again, but this was definitely not the afterlife, nor was it oblivion. He was breathing, and his heart was beating, and he was in some dark place with the vampire who had sworn to kill him.

Niou's heart began to pound. What if Yagyuu had kept him alive because he wanted to torture him? He wondered if there was some way he could escape. He tried to wriggle out from under Yagyuu, but it was no use. Yagyuu's eyes opened, and he looked at Niou with an intensity that caused him to stop beating momentarily. He wondered if Yagyuu was going to try and scare him to death. It might even work.

Yagyuu sat up, and put on his glasses. He looked more like the Yagyuu that Niou knew; but Niou really knew nothing about him, did he?

"Why am I here?" Niou asked.

"I brought you." It was just the kind of maddening answer that Yagyuu always gave to questions he did not want to answer.

"What are you?"

"I should think that would be obvious."

"So, vampires really exist?" Niou had never believed in the supernatural, and yet a vampire had been at his side for about two years now.

"Of course."

"If you're going to kill me anyway, would you answer some questions?" Yagyuu made a vague motion that Niou interpreted as a shrug. "Tell me about real vampires."

"We are stronger than humans, and we drink their blood. We live forever unless we do not get that blood for a few days."

"What, you can't die from a wooden stake in the heart?"

"No."

"Oh." Niou was sure that he was in a state of shock, or else he would not be able to calmly ask questions of the person who was going to kill him. He wondered why Yagyuu had not killed him yet. It was annoying, really; why couldn't he just get it over with? Niou didn't want to die, but even more than that, he didn't want to wait for his death and feel as strange as he felt right now. Any moment, he was going to start panicking.

"Aren't you going to kill me?"

"Yes."

"Have you killed many people?"

"Many."

"Why?"

"It's my nature."

Niou did not like that answer very much. The Yagyuu that he enjoyed spending time with was a little mysterious, but he was not a killer. He was just a private person with a private life that he wanted to keep separate from school, that was all. He should not be a killer.

"Why haven't you killed me yet?"

"I will. I can't let you live and tell anyone about me."

"Can't you wipe my memory, like the vampires on TV do?"

"That's not one of my talents."

"Oh. Damn." Niou blinked back tears that had suddenly formed in his eyes. "I don't want to die, Yagyuu. Are you sure you have to kill me?"

"Yes."

Niou wished that Yagyuu's face had more than one expression, so that he could tell what Yagyuu was thinking right now. Was there any regret in those eyes so cleverly hidden by thick glasses? Probably not. He was a vampire, after all.

"So how do you make vampires? Can I be one? You wouldn't have to kill me then, right?" Niou did not want to be a vampire at all. He did not want to kill people and turn into a monster, but he was getting desperate.

"Sometimes, corpses have a little life left in them when they are buried. Those corpses will rise, with no memory of their previous life, and they will live forever in the night, drinking the blood of humans. If you are killed by a vampire, you will never be one."

"I really don't want to die." He could no longer stop the tears from falling. He didn't care anymore; if he looked childish and weak that was too bad. He was about to die, anyway.

Too Niou's surprise, Yagyuu reached out and wiped those tears away. His fingers were very gentle. "Killing is what I do."

"You don't have to," Niou said. "You could use me whenever you needed, and drink as much blood as you could without killing me. I could be your permanent food source, at least for the rest of my life. Wouldn't that be good enough for you?"

Yagyuu did not reply immediately. Niou did not know if he was thinking about his offer, or something else, like the best way to kill Niou for instance.

"I would still risk being discovered. You might tell someone about me."

"Why would I do something that stupid? You'd kill me after I did."

"I might kill you anyway. What would stop you? You might want to try and have someone stop me, so that I might never kill again."

"If you were using me, you wouldn't be killing, right?" Niou was begging and he knew it. "I don't want to die! Please, don't kill me. I want to live to be really old and grouchy, and I want to be famous somehow, maybe a rock star, because I want everybody to remember me, and..." He trailed off. He was babbling, and it did not make much sense. It was all just a waste of time, anyway. Yagyuu was a vampire, and Niou was going to die.

"I am going to kill you." Yagyuu gripped Niou's shoulders with his inhumanly strong hands, and pulled him forward. Niou closed his eyes, and braced himself for death.

What he got was a kiss. Yagyuu's lips were on his, ever so gently. Niou found himself responding to it. It was like no kiss he'd ever experienced before, and not just because he knew he was about to die. The kiss got deeper and more heated, and Niou somehow managed to forget his impending doom. He forget everything for a little while; forgot everything but those lips on his, and the tongue twining with his, and the pounding of his heart.

Yagyuu pulled away, finally. Niou was in a daze.

"You will have to stay with me. You will never leave my side. You will not go home ever again. You will live with me here."

"My parents --"

"You will have to convince them that you are unhappy at home and need some space. You will not be allowed to see them again."

Niou's head finally cleared, and he realized what he was hearing. "You're not going to kill me?"

"If you listen to what I am saying, and do what I tell you, I may allow you to live," Yagyuu replied. "You will be my source of human blood for the rest of your life."

Niou did not know what he had just gotten himself into. At least he would be allowed to live, but what kind of life would he have? He would not be allowed to see his family again, and he would spend every waking moment at Yagyuu's side. He would be Yagyuu's slave.

At least he would be alive.

"Go back to sleep. We will go and see your parents in the morning, and tell them that you are moving out. You can get all of your things, then."

"Don't you need to drink?"

"I had enough from that girl tonight, before you interrupted." Yagyuu left the room without saying goodnight, which was not surprising. Niou lay awake for a long time, staring at the ceiling.

Whether or not Yagyuu would actually stop killing, Niou did not know. Niou had offered himself and Yagyuu was going to take advantage of that, but he was not making any other promises. Niou would never be able to go against him, either, because he would always be with Yagyuu. The moment he showed signs of trying to get away, Yagyuu would kill him.

Death may have been the better option, after all, but Niou was too afraid to ask for it.

Yagyuu took Niou to his house the next morning, and Niou explained that he was very unhappy, and wanted some time out on his own. He was going to stay with a friend of his, whose parents really liked him, and would love to have him.

Niou's parents were very surprised by the news, and they were not sure what to make of it. Niou's very charming friend Yagyuu convinced them that it would be no problem to have him over for a little while, and he would be sure to help Niou through his problems in whatever way he could. It was obvious that they loved Yagyuu already, and trusted him completely with their son after a few well-chosen words. Yagyuu could certainly have charm, if he tried.

When Niou finished gathering his things, he looked around his room with longing. He wished that he could crawl into that bed, and go to sleep. When he woke up, everything would have been a nightmare, and he could go back to his normal life. It was a little boring sometimes, but at least he would be more than food.

"It's time to go," Yagyuu said, from the doorway.

Niou slung his bag over his shoulder, and walked out of his room forever. He was not given a chance to look back.

Nothing changed at school, but there was an eerie feeling about everything now that reminded Niou of his fate. The normal things did not seem real anymore.

"Why do you go to school, anyway?" Niou asked. They were eating lunch in the same place as they always did, but it felt completely different.

"I have to keep a front, somehow. I move around and change my identity every few years, just so that no one notices that I do not age."

"Your real name isn't Yagyuu Hiroshi?"

"I don't remember what my real name was."

"Oh yeah. You don't have any memories of being human, right? So you just choose whatever name you feel like, and do normal things so that no one is suspicious of you. Couldn't you just live in a cave and come out only to feed?"

"That would be a very dull existence."

"True enough." Niou stared at his food without really seeing it. "Why do you eat lunch every day, if you don't need real food?"

"It would look strange if I never ate," Yagyuu said. "I can digest real food, so it makes things all that much easier."

"Oh. What --"

"Stop asking questions like this at school. I don't want anyone to overhear this," Yagyuu said.

"Sorry."

"You should eat your lunch."

"Right."

Niou did not move a muscle. It was finally beginning to sink in that his life had been ruined. Nothing would ever be the same again. He did not have much of an appetite.

Yagyuu had been suffering from nightmares for three nights running. He spent all of his time with Niou now, so it made sense that Niou was in his dreams. It did not make sense that he kept seeing Niou being killed in various brutal ways; all ways that he had killed humans in his time. He woke from those nightmares in a cold sweat, and often found himself checking Niou's pulse to make sure that his heart was still beating.

Yagyuu had decided that having Niou sleep in his bed with him would be the best way to ensure that he did not run off while Yagyuu slept. He would notice if Niou got up, because vampires slept very lightly. However, the situation was more intimate than Yagyuu had originally thought, and he found himself wanting what he had not wanted in quite a few years.

Yagyuu occasionally took lovers, both male and female, but they were usually temporary ones. He took what he wanted from them, and then he killed them. He wished he could do away with those urges altogether, but it seemed that he still had something leftover from his life as a human.

Sleeping beside Niou every night was starting to make him a little uncomfortable, but it was necessary. He did not want to take Niou as a lover, because he did not plan on killing Niou. He did not want to be that intimate with someone who would live past it.

Still, he had to do something.

On the fourth night, when he awoke from a particularly bad nightmare, Yagyuu decided that he'd had enough. He chained Niou to the bed, ignored what a pretty picture the sight of a chained up Niou blinking sleepy eyes at him made, and he went out.

He found a girl easily enough. She was probably a prostitute, and therefore she would not be missed. He always made a point of finding victims that would not leave anything behind, because it was much easier for him that way.

The girl smiled at him, and gave him a price. Yagyuu agreed to it, and took her hand. He led her into a dark alley. Before he could do anything, an image of Niou's face flashed through his mind.

He knocked the girl unconscious, and he left. He knew that he would not be able to perform with her. Even if he could have, he would definitely not have be able to kill her afterwards.

Yagyuu had been acting strangely. Niou knew he should not be surprised at the different behavior now that he knew what Yagyuu really was, but it was strange just the same. Something was bothering Yagyuu, and he did not know what it was.

He woke up one night to find himself chained to the bed. It must have been to ensure that he would not try to get away, because Yagyuu was not in bed. He had probably gone out to kill.

Niou had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. It had been three weeks, and Yagyuu had not killed anyone since then. He didn't think that Yagyuu had even fed since that night. He hadn't even had a drop of Niou's blood. Niou had begun to think that Yagyuu might even be able to change his ways, but in retrospect, that was highly unlikely. He was a vampire, and he did not seem at all ashamed of that fact.

Yagyuu returned a short while later. He seemed angry about something, which was also unusual. He did not often show emotion.

"Yagyuu?"

"You." Yagyuu put a lot of anger into that one word. Niou did not know what was wrong, but apparently he was the cause of it.

"What did I do?"

Yagyuu did not answer the question. He got onto the bed, and did not bother to take off Niou's chains. "If your face is the only face I can see, then I won't deny it anymore," he said.

"What?" Niou was frightened. Had Yagyuu changed his mind about the deal? Was the reason he had not taken any of Niou's blood because he was saving it for the night he killed Niou?

Yagyuu removed his glasses, and tossed them aside. His eyes were the glowing golden that meant he was about to feed. He opened his mouth to reveal his sharp fangs, and he sunk them into Niou's neck.

It didn't hurt like Niou had expected. It felt strange, but not unpleasant, if he didn't struggle against it. He let himself relax, and let his blood be sucked out of him. It wasn't such a horrible way to die, after all.

Yagyuu pulled back, suddenly, and wiped blood away from his lips. Niou blinked in surprise. Yagyuu was apparently going to keep up his end of their deal, and let Niou live after all.

"You," Yagyuu said, again, though this time he sounded less angry. He moved up a little, and pressed his lips to Niou's. They hadn't kissed since the first time, but it was the same shocking feeling that Niou had experienced then. He was vaguely aware that he was being undressed, but he didn't care. He gave in to what Yagyuu was doing without a fight. Why should he struggle against the vampire who had become his master? Especially when it felt so good...

Yagyuu was very gentle with him. It was strange, but it was nice. Niou could almost pretend that Yagyuu was not a vampire, and that he was not a slave; he could almost pretend that this was just the Yagyuu he had always known, and they were sleeping together because they both wanted it, and it was perfectly normal...

Much later, they lay side by side, neither looking at the other.

"Why?" Niou asked.

"Because I wanted it," Yagyuu replied. "I wanted you."

"Oh." Niou was his slave after all, it only made sense. Still, he could pretend for a moment that he meant something different by those words -- "I wanted you". He could pretend, if only for a moment, that they were real lovers.

"Goodnight," he whispered.

Yagyuu did not reply, but Niou thought he felt an arm wrap around him. He must have been dreaming already, because Yagyuu would have never done something so like a sign of affection.

Most of their days were spent at school. On weekends, Yagyuu took Niou out and let him do things that he enjoyed, so that he would not go stir crazy. Their nights were spent with a mixture of blood and sex. It was never unpleasant and it never hurt, and Niou did not know what to make of it at all. Yagyuu was always with him, and he never went out to kill anymore. Niou did not know what to make of that, either. Yagyuu was a vicious, cold-hearted vampire, but he was behaving more like an attentive lover than anything else.

Yagyuu was kind in his own way, and before Niou could stop himself, he began to enjoy being with him. Even if it was not a perfect existence, there were still happy moments.

Some days, Yagyuu let Niou lay with his head in his lap, and Niou would sleep peacefully there. It was almost like paradise.

Niou had learned to care somewhere along the line, and though he would never tell, Yagyuu had probably figured it out by now. Whether or not he gave a damn was a mystery.

One night, after they were both spent, Niou dared to put his arm around Yagyuu. Sometimes he woke with Yagyuu's arm around him, and he liked the feeling. He thought that Yagyuu might like it, too. He was feeling a little more bold these days, because Yagyuu was not acting much like a vampire.

Yagyuu actually moved closer to him. He was already half asleep. Niou found himself smiling. This felt so much like being with a real lover that it warmed his heart, a little. This existence wasn't so bad, after all.

Yagyuu woke up in a cold sweat from a nightmare, and realized that he was curled up with Niou like they were a couple. He sprang out of bed, panting hard. This was almost worse than the nightmare. He was losing his grip on everything that he knew, and he had to do something about it.

He chained Niou to the bed, and went out to feed. He drained a little girl dry, and left her body in a ditch.

When he got back, Niou was awake and waiting for him. Yagyuu knew there were blood stains on his lips, and knew that Niou would know what he had been doing.

"Why did you do it?" Niou asked. He seemed sad, somehow. It was maddening. Why would Niou be sad? Yagyuu was a killer, and had always been a killer. He would always be a killer.

"I am a vampire," Yagyuu replied.

"Yes."

Why did Niou look so sad? Yagyuu wanted to kill him so badly. He moved forward, with every intention of killing Niou. Instead, he kissed him.

Niou did not kiss back.

"You taste like someone else's blood," Niou whispered. He was crying.

Yagyuu left him chained up and went to a different room. He did not sleep at all that night. He was too shocked from the realization that he was crying, too.

Vampires were not supposed to have tears.

Yagyuu could not kill anymore. It was no use even trying. When he tried to drink someone's blood, he would think of Niou's sad face.

"Why did you do it?"

"You taste like someone else's blood."

Why should any of that matter? Why should he be bothered by Niou's sad face? Why would Niou expect anything different of him?

He had allowed Niou to start thinking of him as less than dangerous, and that was not acceptable.

He had started to think of himself as less than dangerous, and that was even worse.

He had to do something about it -- and yet, he could not kill. It was quite possible that he would never be able to kill again, even after Niou was dead and gone. Then, he would starve to death, and he would rot in Hell or its equivalent, where he belonged.

Niou had been crushed when Yagyuu came home with blood on his lips. For some reason, he had really started to believe that Yagyuu was changing. He had really started to believe that Yagyuu was not just a cold-hearted vampire, but something more.

Niou had wanted very badly to be able to fall in love with Yagyuu. Now, he knew that he couldn't, because Yagyuu would always be what he was: a cold-hearted vampire killer.

It had been three nights since that incident. Yagyuu had brought him food three times a day, unchaining him only long enough that he was able to eat it, and then he went away again. They never spoke in those times.

It was almost time for one of those meals, so Niou was not surprised to see Yagyuu in the doorway. However, he was surprised by the look on Yagyuu's face. He was not wearing his glasses, and there was real emotion there.

"Niou."

"Yagyuu?"

"Why is it that you have this effect on me?" Yagyuu demanded. He sounded angry, but more than that, it was obvious that he was confused. He might even be frightened, but that idea seemed preposterous.

"What?" Niou could hardly believe what he was hearing. He had no idea that he had any sort of effect on Yagyuu. Yagyuu was like a statue of ice, and never let Niou know what he was thinking.

"I can't kill anymore. I am not me, anymore. You've changed me. I should have killed you in the first place."

Niou was shocked to the core to realize that Yagyuu was miserable. Really, truly miserable.

"I did not know what regret was, but you showed me. Now, when I think of all the people I've killed, I think of your sad face. I feel so much regret. Why? What is it about you?"

"Yagyuu..."

"I want to kill you, Niou, but I can't. You are my problem, and I can't get rid of you. What am I supposed to do?"

"Why can't you just be this way?" Niou asked, a little wistfully. "Why can't you stop killing, and stop being a real vampire, and just...just be with me? You can drink my blood anytime, right? So you don't need anyone else, and we can be happy together, somehow..."

"I can't be that kind of person," Yagyuu said.

"Why not?"

"It's been too long. I don't want to change, so don't assume that!"

"Couldn't you try?"

"No. Never."

"You could be a good person, I know you could. I've seen it, I've felt it. You could be different."

"No." Yagyuu advanced. "It's time for you to die. I have to do this."

"Fine. Then do it." Niou waited with closed eyes for the stab of pain he knew was coming. Instead, he felt lips on his.

"I have to kill you," Yagyuu insisted.

He didn't kill Niou. He made love to him instead.

"I wish I could save your soul," Niou said, later.

"Why?"

"You're a good person, somewhere in there. You were probably a good person in your past life. It's not your fault you woke up as a vampire."

"It's in my nature to kill."

"You can go against nature," Niou said. "I would help you."

"I'm past saving."

"No, you're not."

"I've done many things that can be considered evil."

"Then make up for it. You can be better than that."

Yagyuu stroked Niou's hair. It was so soft. He liked it. "I almost believe that when you say it."

"So why don't you listen to me for a change?"

Yagyuu laughed. It was a strange sensation. He couldn't remember ever really laughing before. He had pretended to laugh before, of course, but this was different.

The sound had obviously startled Niou, as well, who was smiling uncertainly.

"Maybe I should listen to you for once," Yagyuu murmured, and he pulled Niou to him for another kiss.

Yagyuu never killed again. Niou stayed with him as he grew old. They moved around on occasion, and did different things with their lives. Yagyuu drank Niou's blood when he needed it, but he never took too much.

Niou got very, very old. Yagyuu still cared about him. He had learned to care a long time ago, even though he had done his best to stop it. He was no longer a real vampire.

Yagyuu Hiroshi was a very sad human.

"I will miss you," Yagyuu said. Niou was on his deathbed, and there was nothing that Yagyuu could do to stop what was going to happen. It was the natural thing for humans.

Yagyuu suddenly wondered how he had died, and why he had woken as a vampire. He had never wondered that before. He had never cared.

"So, does this mean that you love me?" Niou asked, with a smile. It was the same old smile, even if he was much older now.

"Perhaps."

"That's not a very good answer, but I'll let you get away with it this time."

Yagyuu rested his face against Niou's neck. "Do you have to leave me?"

"You know I do."

"Yes."

Yagyuu was not worried that he was going to starve to death soon. He did not mind. He had made a promise never to kill again, and he would stick by it. He simply did not want to be alone for as long as it took for him to die, nor did he want to be separated from Niou when he went to a different place in the afterlife.

"I'll see you again soon," Niou said.

"No, you won't. You will go to paradise, and I will be eternally punished for everything I've done," Yagyuu replied.

"You're wrong. You're a good person, Yagyuu."

"I've done many things that could be considered evil."

"Yes, but you made up for them. You saved your soul, Yagyuu."

Yagyuu said nothing more about it. He did not want to argue with Niou anymore, not in his last moments.

"Goodnight," Niou said, and he closed his eyes.

"I love you," Yagyuu said, quietly. Niou did not hear him.

Yagyuu was too weak to move anymore. He was very cold, which he hated, but he knew it would not last for much longer.

He felt the touch of lips on his, and he almost thought he could see Niou, waiting for him. Maybe his soul had been saved, after all.

"If anyone saved my soul, it was you," Yagyuu said. He reached out a hand, and he felt Niou take it.

Yagyuu Hiroshi was happy for the first time in centuries.


End file.
